Martin Luther Quotes

Have We All Been Sleeping on Quotes from Martin Luther?  

 There Would be no Reformation without Saying this Outloud

Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason-I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other-my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

From the beginning of my Reformation I have asked God to send me neither dreams, nor visions, nor angels, but to give me the right understanding of His Word, the Holy Scriptures; for as long as I have God's Word, I know that I am walking in His way and that I shall not fall into any error or delusion.

The Wages of Sin is Death But,...

Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not.

So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”

Luther's One-Liners to Change the World

Radical Time Management

I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.

Pray like it all depends on God, then when you are done, go work like it all depends on you.

There are two days in my calendar: This day and that Day.

Changing the World

If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.

God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.

 We need to hear the Gospel every day, because we forget it every day.

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.

Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.

Doing What is Right Even Though...

 Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

True humility does not know that it is humble. If it did, it would be proud from the contemplation of so fine a virtue.

Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.

The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship. 

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. 

Being Set Apart Together 

We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.

The whole being of any Christian is faith and love. Faith brings the person to God, love brings the person to people.

Let the wife make her husband glad to come home and let him make her sorry to see him leave. 

Music in My Soul

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

A person who...does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs. 

Aha Moments 

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.

This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.

The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common. Our Lord God has made His greatest gifts the commonest. 

I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.